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does it make sense that the main purpose of learning about history is to learn about mistakes so that they are not repeated in the future, yet we do not show some of the mistakes that the US has had in the past. history text books tend to hide things and just show everyone else's mistakes. as if trying to prove that we do no wrong, and that any mistake we had before, will never come up again.
Yes, I agree with you Infamy. History books are totally bias and leave out every terrorist action by the US. Well I currently go to school so I have a huge list I made by reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I'm planning on mentioning every single one when I get back to school.
Its impossible to fit everything in one book, i'm sure you'll agree.
So its easier to use an event, to display a point. Like how public opinion can bring about change - and public health. Rise of Facism - Hitler. etc etc
Although history books are always biased, so its pointless whining over it - its best to just stock up on as much stuff as possible, and as wide a range as possible. Don't let one book dictate your life.
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
i completely agree. the us seems to have a knack for "forgetting" all the stupid things they've done. but i also agree with james... it is impossible to fit everything in one book. so i guess this just means that we will all be damned to a historically ignorant life. who knows?
<span style=\'color:red\'>"I hope we’ll meet again in a world of peace and freedom if the accident will." gerhard muller - from slaughterhouse-five (kurt vonnegut)</span>
i agree, but thats why we are given 3 years of history, and thas just in high school. many of the things we know to be mistakes come from outside sources. of course we could not fit everything into a book, but many of "text" books seem to forget the same topics.
Okay, so what anti american stuff could they put into text books?
I personally did the stuff like "what was it like to live in the middle ages" when i was very small, then for my GCSE's we did history of medicine, hitler's rise to power, some local history, and JFK. A wide range of stuff.
Please point out what stuff you think has been covered up in a big conspiracy...
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
May i also add, when i go to 6th form next year i'm taking history. I believe we do lots of stuff, including, vietnam, role of women and possibly american history - or that may be in politics (which i'm also taking).
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
well i know there was talk on this site about the missles in Turkey around the same time as the missles in cuba. neither one of those are talked about in great detail, but at least the cuban missle crisis is mentioned.
Yes, but they may not be talked about in detail because thats not the thing that you are studying. The Cuban missilies are more well known - thus there are more resources...
I can't remember if my teacher told me bout the american ones in turkey - or if i found out myself whilst doing private research.
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
i can't see how the cuban missles and the turkey missles wouldn't be talked about. they were never mentioned in my history class. we got a little bit on the cuban crisis, but why not the turkey? they were both happening at the same time correct??
another instance is the fact that we left roswell out of our history books. we all know about it because of popularity and widespread talk, but it is not taught to us. that is a popular issue that text books seem to always over look. . .
When we did JFK, we did alot about the Cuban missile crises - although we used booklets prepared by the teachers, which probably proves your point that this kind of stuff isn't written about much.
Also i believe that the missiles in turkey were placed there way before the cuban missile crisses, so again we are faced with trying to fit in lots of stuff, onto a single page. Not very accurate i'm sure you will agree.
Anyways. Like i have said, each thing tends to have a theme. What relevence does an alien conspiracy have? What history skills can you pick up from studying something like that?
We did the cuba thing because we were doing JFK, and his foriegn policies etc.
But your most probably right that history books miss out the intresting stuff, i imagine us in the UK; don't do about the concentration camps that we set up during the boer war because its embarressing, and the government would rather forget about it all. Not very historical is it. But thats because our schools are run by governments (in most casses). They arn't going to give you reasons to rebel are they.
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
your correct, they wouldn't give information that would make us rebel. but according to them, we learn history to learn about the mistakes for the past. so we don't make the same mistakes again. i tend to think the government messed up with the whole roswell thing and is trying to cover ut up by not saying anything more about it. It was mentioned by my US history teacher because he knows a little about it.
see here in america, we go through Us history for a year. in that class we use a timeline that travels all through the 200 and some odd year history of the US. If it has happened in the US then its should be on the timeline. i understand what you were saying about the themes and what we are studying, but in this case, everything fits on the timeline.
Yeah your right.What i've talked about has been relative to individual subjects.
However they could argue that its impossible to fit in american history into one year, and please everyone.
Best thing to do mate, is to do your own out of school work. Then when you get tot the time period in class, just keep on asking questions. And more and more questions.
Captain Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war two great super-armies developed. Us, the Russians and the French on one side, Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea being that each army would act as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick: Except, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Captain Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
Lieutenant George: O, what was that?
Captain Blackadder: It was bollocks.
US high school history books are written for your parents, not for you. Anything that could plausibly upset them is either skipped or talked about in such vague terms that it is meaningless. Go to a used book store and buy a college history book. There will still be things it misses, but it will be a lot more satisfactory. Buy different ones and compare them--that's always fun. Well, it's fun if spending your free time reading textbooks is your idea of fun.
A question about the Turkey missile crisis...
Did the US plant nukes there? I know they had military bases, but I want to know if they had nukes.
to tell you the truth, i don't know exactly what the US had there in turkey, what i had heard was they did, but im not totaly sure. i found out about the whole turkey thing somewhere here on the message board, what topic or section i can't remember, but i do know people have posted about it before.
"I have a huge list I made by reading A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I'm planning on mentioning every single one when I get back to school."
YES!!! You rock.
On the other hand, don't get yourself kicked out of school doing it. More can be done with a diploma than without, whatever you may decide to do in the future. The old saying "choose your battles" is quite profound sometimes.
That said, I think it's great that you've shown this kind of initiative. If you go to school in the US, you may also want to read Lies My Teacher Told Me by, I believe, Loewen. He's a history prof. who went through popular US high school history texts and showed what he called the "whitewashing" of history. Very good book, and an interesting read, too. Much quicker than Zinn's work, which is the benchmark, I think.
I just heard a report on the TV about a conservative group in Texas that reads textbooks and decides if they are too "liberal" for their schools. Publishers, looking at the dollar signs, happily make any changes that are recommended.
I'm thinking that the Left should organize like that. This group has more political power in Texas than any third party.
vox
Economists have provided capitalists with a comforting concept called the "free market." It does not describe any part of reality, at any place or time. It's a mantra conveniently invoked when it is proposed that government do something the faithful don't like, and just as conveniently ignored whenever they want government to do something for them.
Thanks for the great suggestions guys. I am constantly having to re-educate my kids on the real world. In third grade they covered the second world war by doing a module on how mean we were to the Japanese.
My third grader mentioned that he asked his teacher why they never teach any of the bad things in history and she said they will learn that later when they are ready.
Ready? You mean pre-indoctrinated?
Off to Amazon to get the books you recommend.....
Let us be judged by how we treat the least among us....Supermodel, rubia y descamisada...
Do a search in www.google.com for US nukes in turkey.
This is what I found:
TEXT: The article is based on a recently declassified,
Pentagon history dealing with the deployment of U-S
nuclear weapons overseas from 1945 to 1977.
One of the co-authors of the article - weapons expert
Robert Norris - says during that time period, American
nuclear weapons were stationed in 27 countries and U-S
territories - such as Puerto-Rico...................
// EDS: Here is the complete list of the 27
`destinations' of U-S nuclear weapons overseas. Those
that were blacked out in the Pentagon report are in
capital letters and one remains a mystery: Alaska,
CANADA, ???, Cuba, GREENLAND, Guam, Hawaii, ICELAND,
JAPAN, Johnston Island, KWAJALEIN, Midway, MOROCCO,
OKINAWA, PHILIPPINES, Puerto Rico, REPUBLIC OF KOREA,
SPAIN, TAIWAN. Nato Europe: BELGIUM, FRANCE, GREECE,
ITALY, NETHERLANDS, TURKEY, United Kingdom, West
Germany.
The United States currently stations between 6-
8,000 nuclear weapons in seven European countries:
Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Italy, Turkey
and the United Kingdom.
Let us be judged by how we treat the least among us....Supermodel, rubia y descamisada...
Jesus Christ, 27 countries??? 6000 to 8000 nukes?
